County councillors at a local area committee accused their own education bosses of presenting a poor report into the future of Blackdown Primary School.

Cllr Brian Coffin lambasted the consultation paper they had been given and said it had reached conclusions which were not backed up by facts.

He argued the committee would not be able to support closure because of the lack of information contained in the document.

The school has been earmarked for closure after a poor Ofsted report highlighted the failings of Blackdown Primary School.

But the chairman of governors, staff and parents at the school are vowing to fight the county council to keep the facility open.

The chairman of governors, Steve Griffith, has already blasted one report prepared by education bosses as he claimed it had a number of errors and omissions.

Many see the school as the hub of the community in Deepcut and were dismayed when the closure plans were announced.

At last Thursday’s meeting of the county council’s committee for Surrey Heath, five of the county councillors agreed they were unable to support the closure plans.

Cllr Lavinia Sealy abstained from the vote as she is a member of the executive committee that will make the crucial decision on the fate of the school on February 17.

Education chiefs Ian Beck — the consultation report’s author — and John Ambrose were present at the Surrey Heath committee to answer questions from the councillors.

Instead they received flak for a poor report and were told they must do better if the committee was expected to comment on the future of Blackdown Primary School.

The committee was incensed when Mr Ambrose said the executive would receive a full report when they came to make their decision.

“We have been told a number of times that we are here to act on behalf of the executive,” Cllr Coffin stormed. “I don’t see that we can possibly hope to do that with a paper like this.

“It’s devoid of facts to justify the statements that are in that paper. I hope that the message goes back that this committee can’t support this paper as it stands because it’s so totally devoid of information.”

Frimley Green and Mytchett councillor John Phillips — also a governor for the primary school — urged the committee to reject the closure option.

He admitted he had been surprised by the poor Ofsted report and said he was disappointed that the headteacher, Wendy Craft, had resigned in the wake of the report’s findings.

The Ofsted report had identified it as a failing school and had placed it in the category known as “special measures”. This had triggered the county council’s proposal to close the school.

Cllr Phillips added Blackdown Primary had to move forward and said the acting headteacher was working on an action plan to get the school out of special measures.

He believed it was a good school. He said many of the children were from army families and they needed extra support as they were under different pressures to civilian children.

These comments were echoed by Cllr Fred Chipperfield, who said he understood the difficulties military families faced.

He told the committee he had served on the governing body of the school for 16 years and it had “always been a happy school”.

Cllr Chipperfield said forces’ families were constantly uprooted and would face even more disruption if the school was closed.

l Surrey County Council will comment on the closure plans on Thursday. The children and young people select committee will meet at County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston, at 10am.